Welcome to the âFlesh&Bloodâ Pirate Series Reading Club
This thread is about the bonus material that was released after Volume 8.
There is only one extra story that was published after volume 8 and before volume 9:
èȘă: published as a stand-along doujinshi by æŸćČĄăȘă€ă herself under the circle name ă”ăăăŒă”. The doujinshi book itself is titled âFlesh and Bloodâ, and was published August 14, 2005.
Which of the bonus materials have you read?
èȘă
None so far
0voters
When discussing the short story(s) for each volume, letâs figure out:
When in the booksâ timeline this short story takes place, and
When a new reader should read the short story for best âtimeline flowâ (i.e., after which volume and/or chapter.)
Just one bonus story in volume 8âs slot this time; itâs the first of æŸćČĄăȘă€ăâs self-published Flesh&Blood doujinshi: link. (Please let me know if you canât access it!) Fun fact: æŸćČĄć ç has a long history of publishing bonus stories as doujinshi for her formally published work; Iâm hoping to make a nice little chart one day.
Just a heads up for this doujin + future bonus stories where I was taking pictures of the pages: these are very roughly cleaned, just a crop + auto leveling. I let the auto-leveler do its job and mostly didnât interfere, so if you see some uneveness in lighting and whatnot as you flip through, just blame GIMP.
Iâve been wondering about this for a while, but for the doujinshi do we know yet if theyâre an extra adding to the main story or more of an au situation? Mostly curious about this one in particular because I keep seeing (possible spoiler) Nigel x Kaito in the title when Iâve been browsing second hand stores.
I believe it should be the former (not sure about the possible school doujinshi yet, though). I was flipping through this one the other day before bed, and it appears to cover Nigelâs thoughts and developing relationship with Kaito starting with volume 1 all the way up through, presumably, volume 8.
I see, that makes sense, we havenât seen much from Nigelâs perspective in the main story so itâll be interesting to get more insight into his thoughts. Ngl though wouldnât have minded an au where Nigel gets a chance
It is set right after Vol. 7 chapter 3, after their arrival in Plymouth.
èȘă Chapter 1.
The story is being told from Nigelâs POV.
Nigel has just seen Kaito and Geoffrey off, and of course he knows full well what they are up to. He returns to his house to meet Joe and Kuu, who manage to cheer him up a bit, but his thoughts keep returning to Kaito. He is not even very hungry, which, together with Geoffrey not coming to stay with him, is of course noticed by Joe, but he does not investigate further. Nigel goes to bed early.
So this is how æŸćČĄć ç makes up for the chapters of the main books not being from Nigelâs perspective in the overwhelming majority of chapters, it seems I canât say I can complain about this choice. I just hope this story will not be as soulcrushing as it seems to start outâŠ
This is sooo heartwrenching, oh my god
Nigel goes to bed but of course cannot fall asleep. Instead he relives everything he encountered with Kaito so far. Which is pretty soulcrushingly sweet and bitter. I mean, of course I understood that Nigel has feelings for Kaito, but I guess seeing the depth of his feelings, and in his own words, is yet something different.
Of course he also thinks about Geoffrey. In the end he is very clear that he wants them both: Kaitoâs love and Geoffreyâs friendship. So itâs not a matter of whom he should choose - choosing one would make him lose the other one. Instead, he should not choose at all. - At that point, Kuu comes to visit him, and Nigel lets him sleep on his bed and is happy to cuddle with him.
The next morning, Nigel still feels down but he agrees to go to the festival with Joe because he knows that Joe wouldnât go alone and entertain himself while Nigel is at home or at work. (You sure you didnât accidentally hire a Japanese housekeeper, Nigel? )
At the market, they bump into a lot of people who want to talk to Nigel because they invested in the shipâs tour and they want to get their revenues. Also, the mayorâs wife chats him up and offers him his daughter to marry! He sure is popular in town. But he is not even able to make nice conversation in his current mood. Then, Kaito appears on Samâs cart, and we see the scene from Nigelâs perspective.
èȘă Chapter 4.
This scene is of course about the events on the Hoe, this time from Nigelâs perspective. Sooo heartwrenching, really!
I liked this story very very much! All in all Iâm getting the hang of reliving certain events from other peopleâs perspectives, Iâm hoping the other stories keep being as interesting!
This story runs in parallel with Vol. 7 Ch. 4 - 8 (i.e. up to the end of the volume) so I highly recommend to read it after Vol. 7 at the earliest.
EDIT: Oh and I forgot to mention: Nigelâs grandma was scared of going to the Hoe because there seemed to be rumours about ghosts and fairies; and on one occasion she even saw a person in strange clothes who was speaking in a strange way
Phew, I finally rise from the dead! Itâs a slow rise; I only read part 1 last night, but Iâm coming to the point where Iâm going to have to make peace with the fact that Iâm not likely going to be able to stay on top of my other book club bookâs chapters. Workâs just been terrible lately. :\ At least with these F&B extras theyâre just going to be little chunks of story, compared to a whole novel, so it should be easier to break them upâŠ
Anyhow, angsty Nigel always makes me feel better. Not a whole lot to report on for part 1; we get to better meet ăžă§ăŒ (Joe â Joseph) and get to say hi to ăŻăŒ again.
Part 2 finally finished! I actually started it way back on Wednesday, but this week has just been so flat out awful. I woke up Thursday morning and realized I had retained nothing of what I read the night before, so I just chalked the week up as a lost cause.
Probably a good thing, honestly; after some hours of sleep I can confirm that part 2 is all just miserable Nigel, haha. Maaan, I know I say this a lot, but itâs gonna be real rough if after all this heartbreak Nigel is just casually tossed to the side or whatever. Iâm counting on you, æŸćČĄć ç. On a lighter note, I found it hilarious how Kit didnât even factor into Nigelâs reminisces. No âhe set prostitutes on meâ or anything; the man doesnât even factor into Nigelâs life. : P If a threesome between our leading men is a steep slope, Kit/Nigel is a boulder actively crushing you, haha.
Gonna try to read as much as I can today; Iâm pretty sure next weekâs going to be just as awful. -.-; Good thing we decided to read extras for a bit @NicoleIsEnough; thereâs not as much pressure to hurry on with the craziness of the main series.
Part 3 finished. Nigel finally gets a little bit of good karma his way when he can meet up with Kaito at the fair. (I see you over there Pippo; get out of here.) Iâm a bit surprised Geoffrey is known as both an atheist and homosexual around town; Iâm pretty sure both of those things were illegal at that time. Letâs just chalk it up to being an alternate world, eh.
Small fun fact: Nigel mentions that Kaitoâs white teeth got a lot of questions at the Queenâs palace. I donât know about white teeth, but black teeth were apparently a bit of a mark of high society at the time, since it was a sign you were rich enough to eat enough sugar to rot your teeth.
Man, knowing whatâs going to happen with Nigel and Kaito in the next parts, I can totally see why Nigel does what he going to do. Iâm guessing æŸćČĄć ç didnât want to slow down the main series with too many viewpoints, which is smart, though Nigel is such an important character it kind of throws things out of balance imo. At least we get Vicente in parts.
Well, regardless, Iâm super looking forward to reading whatâs next from Nigelâs POV. Kaito didnât really get to dwell on it much, so nowâs my chance to relive it~
(Also, I need someone to reply to me plz for post limits.)
Iâm happy to hear that you are enjoying this book so much; I also thoroughly enjoyed it! About æŸćČĄć ç not having Nigelâs viewpoint as much, thatâs a bit of a mystery to me honestly⊠He is such an important character for the overall series and development. So Iâm extra happy to have these side texts where we can see much more of him!
Okay, Iâve got like 10-15 pages left of part 4 (Iâm at the part where Nigel realizes theyâre surrounded), but I wonât be able to read and finish it until later today, so I thought Iâd go ahead and type up a few thoughts here first:
Nigelâs mother mentioned fairies at the Hoe that steal people away is very interesting, especially her motherâs description of âa man wearing strange clothes and speaking a different languageâ. The time tunnels are, as far as we know, one-way beasts, so Iâm not sure the logistics of this being an experience with a time traveler, but itâs a neat idea. If thatâs not the case, then it could be further proof of the supernatural existing in this world, which is also super cool.
Nigelâs focus on owning a possession of a loved one is pretty interesting. âŠI guess I donât have much more to say than that so far; I wonder if itâll come up in the main series? If anything ever happens to Kaito, I could see Nigel taking over ownership of Blackie.
Itâs pretty apparent here how much time was skipped over in Kaitoâs account of the Hoe trip; they search around for at least half an hour, and Nigel sits and lets Kaito sleep a bit before making his move. Originally I was wondering how Vicente and his men had gotten into position so fast, but our boys gave them plenty of time.
âHmm, there are like ten men surrounding us. I donât want to alarm Kaito, so Iâll tell him there are like, five, maybe six.â I loled a bit at that; thatâs still a pretty alarming number when itâs just the two of you, Nigel.
Ah, no, youâre correct! I was thinking more along the lines of âKaito dies or gets sucked back into the modern worldâ, haha. I was very proud of Nigel for his progress, though.
And done! Man, that ending. I knew it was all coming, of course, but itâs such an intense scene. My man Vicente gets some sick screentime as well: âIâve been thinking, whatâs the best way to put the fear of God in a one-eyed man?â Brutal. Nigelâs little mini-communion with Kaito was also interesting; yet another example where Kaito is compared to the divine. I wonder if heather and gorseâs flower languages include the ones æŸćČĄ picked? Iâll need to look it up sometime.
Iâm in total agreement with you here; thatâs the definition minimum reading for sure. Iâll add it to the spreadsheet.
Same here! Theyâre not really story-heavy or anything, more like snacks, but thatâs probably for the best. Partially as a palate cleanser for the main series, partially because Iâm sure part of the fandom would die in a frothing rage if important story stuff was only found in one pamphlet they printed about 200 copies of.
Itâs also really nice to see othersâ perspectives. I really like the way æŸćČĄć ç writes her characters; theyâre all so fun.
)
He sure is popular in town. But he is not even able to make nice conversation in his current mood. Then, Kaito appears on Samâs cart, and we see the scene from Nigelâs perspective.
